Folk's gold: 'pretty cool'

Schuylkill Valley's Breanna Folk is all smiles after winning gold at the PIAA Class AA Swimming Championships at Bucknell University Wednesday. Folk set the state record in the girls 200-yard IM.

LEWISBURG - Breanna Folk rewrote the Berks swimming record book in a few ways Wednesday evening.

The Schuylkill Valley senior won the 200-yard individual medley at the PIAA Class AA Championships by dominating the last two legs and became the first Panthers girl to claim state gold.

She won in a state-record 2:00.51, which is also a Berks record.

"That's pretty cool," Folk said. "It's a great day for my school."

Folk wasn't the only one to wow the crowd at Bucknell University's Kinney Natatorium.

Wyomissing successfully defended its gold in the 200 medley relay with a state-record effort of its own.

The team of Katie Duggan, Zoe Sianis, Brianna Bentz and Mary Moser won in 1:47.30, a 2.5-second improvement over the Spartans' preliminary time and more than a second better than their winning time from '08.

"We knew this would be the last time we're all together," said Moser, referring to Sianis, who's the quartet's lone senior. "So we went for it.

"We wanted to make a statement."

Moser, a junior, also took first in the 50 freestyle (23.26) in her third try to give Berks three golds out of six events.

"I felt really good out there," said Moser, who was second in the 50 the last two years.

Other Berks girls claiming medals in the first day of the two-day event were Muhlenberg's 200 free relay of Kelly Geras, Katie Yeity, Kristina Ciatto and Brianna Sieck, which finished third; Yeity, who was sixth in the 50; and Bentz, who was seventh in the 100 butterfly.

Wyomissing was fifth in the team standings with 79 points, with Muhlenberg right behind at 73. Schuylkill Valley was 16th with 34. Villa Maria Academy leads with 100.

The Tennessee-bound Folk's main competition was Delone Catholic's Andrea Staub, whom she beat at the District 3-AA meet, and Marie Georger from Mercyhurst Prep.

The three were neck-and-neck through the first two legs, with Folk ahead by a half-second.

She took off in the breaststroke leg, pulling out to a two-second lead that she built on for the final freestyle leg.

"It was one of my goals, to go out and get first," said Folk, who swam exclusively for her club team as a sophomore and junior. "I wanted to break the state record, and I did."

The last Panthers state swimming gold was Toby Lentz, who won the 100 breast in 1995.

Folk bested her own Berks record, the previous being 2:02.67 that she set with her state runner-up finish as a freshman. The previous state mark was 2:01.10 set by East Pennsboro's Leah Gingrich last year.

The Spartans medley relay broke a mark of 1:48.34 set by Hershey in '06.